This morning, I heard Joseph calling my name at 6AM. I woke up, left the tent, and quickly packed up everything. We walked to McDonalds where we spent about an hour eating breakfast, drinking coffee, and charging our electronics. At about 8AM, we parted ways and I walked back up to Thetis Lake Park to complete the same route as the Meetup Hike that was scheduled for the upcoming Saturday morning. I’m happy that I didn’t end up wasting a Saturday or Sunday with the Thetis Lake Hike. It would have been a disappointing weekend hike, but ended up being a great weekday morning hike.
The hike was about 5 miles long, and included hiking up to Seymour Hill and completing a loop around Lower and Upper Thetis Lakes. There were many casual walkers, families, and dog-hikers throughout the entire trail. Interestingly, this trail is used as a training hike for advanced swimmers who swim for several kilometers around the lake.
After hiking at Thetis Lake, I walked back to the Highway and boarded the 50 bus to Downtown Victoria. I then dropped of my pack at the HI-Hostel in Victoria, before starting to walk along the scenic marine route. I passed Inner Harbour, the Legislative building, the departure point of the Black Ball Ferry Line (to Port Angeles, WA), Fisherman’s Wharf, Ogden Breakwater, and Beacon Hill Park.
The most interesting part of the day was learning about Terry Fox. Terry was a high-school and college athlete who was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 19. Because of his cancer, his leg had to be amputated. He eventually recovered from cancer, but felt like he had a responsibility and purpose to give hope to all the cancer patients who had lost hope and were in despair. He first set a goal to run one marathon, which he completed. Afterwards, he set a goal to run the entire length of Canada, by running 26 miles each day. He was well on his way to completing the run, when at 3,339 miles into the run, he asked to be taken to the hospital. His cancer had spread to his lungs, and he passed away shortly thereafter. He is a Canadian National Hero and money continues to be raised in his name until today.
The Story of Terry Fox is inspirational and encourages us to take on challenges, set the bar high, and remove the limitations that we sent ourselves. When very few other people in his position thought they could make a difference, Terry made an enormous difference through strong-willed determination, passion, and meaning.
I then worked at Starbucks for 4-5 hours, catching up on work and blogs. At 11PM I slept, but ended up waking up in the middle of the night for a couple of hours feeling nauseous. Not feeling too well in the middle of the night served as a reminder for me not to make decisions while I’m not feeling my best. For example, if you would’ve asked me last night, I might have considered taking a flight home within the next week, something that today just sounds ridiculous.
